If a picture paints a thousand words

This blog is a place for me to work on my photography. My goal is to submit a new picture every day and to get better as the moments go by. I take all pictures with my digital camera. I worked for years with a 35 mm minolta, and this is a learning experience for me. I am afraid that I got lazy and allowed the camera to choose most of the settings for me. This is my journey of learning how to shoot a camera that is not in a program mode. It is harder than I ever imagined. That makes this challenge both a new experience and a joy for me.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

I am in love with these old boxes. They are the old combination boxes that most Post Offices don't have anymore. I think they are so interesting and definitely worth mentioning. They are over 100 years old. I love the weathered and beaten look of them. Today, when a Post Master retires, many recieve one of the old boxes remade into a bank. I think it is a grand tradition.

We are mothers and fathers. And sons and daughters. Who every day go about our lives with duty, honor and pride. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Josh turned 21. It was a special day for him. Miracle made him a cake the night before and put a big note on it to keep the family out of it until he could share in the celebration. I totally loved the note!

They really do grow up way too fast!! Happy, happy birthday Josh. Don't forget, in your quest to live on your own, how very much you are loved. He is moving out in May and we really are going to miss him!!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

A recent trip to Globe Arizona gave me an opportunity to take several pictures of the old Post Office there. I loved the detail in the building. This was the better picture of all of them. I didn't like the ones that were farther away because you could not see the amazing detail. Globe is an old mining town and parts of it are very run down. The Post Office used to house several different federal agencies and is amazing.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Some people like garden Gnomes, I like garden people. This little guy caught my eye as he reminded me of the fun of childhood. All of the plants are dried up and gone and waiting for summer to bring green and growing again.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

I started buying bountiful baskets. If you are lucky enough to live near a place that allows you to buy them, they are amazing and I am totally in love with the co-op concept. Every two weeks, I buy two baskets. Whatever I can't use (or don't get around to) I bottle. This is just a few of the recent jars of joy!

I have done several bottles of sweet potatoes, a stew mixture, and green beans. I can't wait until my garden gives me some more goodies to can. There is just something so fulfilling about making a difference.

Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Monday, April 11, 2011

"To 'put by' is an old deep-country way of saying to 'save something you don't have to use now, against the time when you'll need it.' "Putting food by is the antidote for running scared". Janet Greene
(I don't get the running scared part. I just love the feeling of having a full pantry. I think it's very rewarding, saves money and the taste is so much better than store bought!!)

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.

Pray as though everything depended on God.

Work as though everything depended on you.

"Fewer and fewer parents ask their children to do chores around the house because they think they are already overwhelmed by social and academic pressures. But children devoid of responsibilities risk never learning that every individual can be of service and that life has meaning beyond their own happiness."

Monday, April 4, 2011

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and sings it back to you when you have forgotten how it goes."

"A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow." William Shakespeare

Friendship multiplies joy and divides grief.

"A friend is one to whom one can pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keeping what is worth keeping, and, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away."

Friday, April 1, 2011

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is
to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone
with the heavens, nature and God.

Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and
that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple
beauty of nature. I firmly believe that nature brings solace
in all troubles. - Anne Frank

About Me

I am the wife of the most amazing man on earth and the mother of 11 children. I am also a grandma of 14 grandchildren, with several more to come. My family means more to me than any other thing I might have accomplished.